


Skyfall

by orenjikitty



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, yes there is character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 08:26:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9376703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orenjikitty/pseuds/orenjikitty
Summary: Angela loved. Angela lost. But when she is given another shot at it, is she willing to pay the price for it?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. This thing held me hostage and wouldn't let me go. I hope you all enjoy it. Special thanks to @Lycoriseum for letting me use Kamilah in this.
> 
> \-------------------
> 
> Let the sky fall, When it crumble, We will stand tall, Face it all together

She knew this was blackmail. Every bit of it.

But what was she to do? This was Amélie…

The only other person in she ever connected to. To ever see her genuinely smile.

To ever hear her say ‘I love you’.

But Amélie broke her heart, long ago. Before Gerard even came into her life. Before Overwatch to bring the pain up again.

Angela sighed, looking at the correspondence from the hacker only known as Sombra. How Amélie was doing. How she’s slowly dying from the treatments Talon kept her under.

And her technology was responsible for it.

Angela sat at her desk, rereading the letter again. Every bit of the email, heavily encrypted for something so simple. There was probably a hidden motive to this. Something Sombra isn’t disclosing, she was sure.

She had to find out though. This was Amelie, Widowmaker now, but still the woman she loved all those years ago. Angela moved the mouse to respond, hesitating one more time.

She already got the call for the Recall weeks ago, Winston no doubt initiating it. Lena no doubt would answer it. Jesse too. Reinhardt for sure. The others….herself? She didn't know just yet.

She hit the reply button, giving Sombra the location of her offices in Oasis. At least there, she thought, she would have some pull. Some sort of security. Where, whatever she was to do, (gods help her) won’t be questioned. Oasis was built on that very foundation.

_ <<< Only a side arm. Concealed. Here are the coordinates. Meet me there in 2 days. _

_ >>> Understood. _

\----------------------

_Amélie laughed, pulling her close again. “Ami, stop. I have to go. I have to finish this thesis,” Angela said although she didn't really struggle. The warmth of Amélie’s bed called to her, the weather outside not helping her case. “It could lead to a breakthrough that could save thousands.”_

_“Yet you don’t seem to want to leave, cherie,” Amélie pointed out, kissing her on the nape of her neck. “It’s raining out. You can use my laptop to write your thesis. I know you keep a copy of it in your email.”_

_“I regret telling you that now,” Angela replied, a moan slipping through her lips as Amélie continued to kiss the same spot softly. “And what are you going to do? I thought you had a paper due as well?”_

_“I’ll manage,” Amélie said, tightening her grip around her. It was weird, dating an underclassman but Amélie was different. She wasn’t like the other 3rd years she knew of. Angela had met her during one of the faculty mixers, the girl being pulled into coming by her then roommate. Still, she was already 24, with 2 doctorates to her name already.  Amélie was just working on her first BA. “It’s only music theory.”_

_“Music Theory has papers?”_

_“Compositions,” Amélie clarified, hands drifting lower. “I do need inspiration though.”_

_Angela laughed. “You’re insatiable.”_

_“Only for you.”_

\-------------------------

Her face never faltered as Sombra looked around her office. She had dismissed her assistant before the other woman came, the girl hesitating but left anyways. She didn’t need any witnesses about this.

“Impressive, from one genius to another, very impressive,” Sombra said as she touched one of the many plaques on the wall.

“Just tell me what you want. I have better things to do,” Angela said, hand twitching under her chair.

You won’t need the gun under your chair, _mija_. I come as a friend.”

“Friends do use blackmail to get what they want,” Angela pointed out, hand falling away from the gun. “And I know what happens to your ‘friends’,” Angela told her, earning a raised eyebrow.

Sombra let out a chuckle, shaking her head. “Katya Volskaya.”

“I know you already know my connection to her, since you hacked my database 3 months ago. That’s on public record, anyways,” Angela said. “Now, if you don’t want to explain why you’re here I hav-”

“Widowmaker has a cruder version of my neural implant,” Sombra interrupted. “It’s attached to her visor, that’s why she can’t ever take it off. You know that already.” Angela stiffened as Sombra continued. “However, Talon is having a hard time keeping her memories suppressed. A really hard time, if you catch my meaning.”

“You’re tampering with her neural implant?” Angela argued, pushing herself up from her desk. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

“I do. And before you ask, that’s why I came to you and you alone,” Sombra advised her, looking over her shoulder. “Each time they plug her in, they up the dosage of nanities to suppress her emotions and memories. The drug they use to knock her out, to work on her, is just shy of being fatal at this point, since she’s been resisting more and more. While the dosage is small but we both know that eventually…”

“Her heart would give out,” Angela finished the sentence for her.

Sombra gave her an unimpressed look, taking a look at the plaque in front of her again. “I know what I know, Doc. And when I don’t know something, I find someone who does.”

“Me,” Angela concluded.

“You,” Sombra offered. “Believe it or not, I care about Widowmaker. She’s a friend. A real one to me. What Talon keeps doing to her…” Sombra’s voice hitched, Angela watching her eyes go from hurt to showing resolve once more. “What matters is this: Widowmaker is cracking. Slowly but she’s cracking. The more she cracks, the less Talon would want to keep her. They’re already training other people to potentially replace her. When that happens…”

Angela knew exactly what happened to those Talon wanted disposed of. She’d seen the bodies herself, both on the battlefield and in reports. “The implant, I can manage. I can keep them from knowing its failing. Help her fake her way through them knowing its not working. However, her heart and her mind, that’s your expertise. I can keep them, _him_ , away while you work your DnD magic healing on her.”

Angela noticed the plaque Sombra had been staring at. The accolade she got from the University of Bern in psychiatry, right above the diploma she got for biomedical sciences from Cambridge. “And Widowmaker, she’s alright with your plan?”

Sombra just smiled at her, “She’s the one that asked me to find you.”

\------------

_“You’re leaving,” Angela repeated, schooling her voice to remain as flat as she can._

_“I’m done, Angie,” Amélie said, packing up her violin. “I’m graduating. We both are.”_

_“So you’re just going back, just like that? You’re not even going to try to make this work?” Angela asked, pleaded more like it._

_“I can't do long distance,” Amélie mumbled out. Angela moved from her spot by the door towards her, slowly. Carefully._

_“It doesn’t have to be long distance. You can move in with me,” Angela offered. She noticed the turmoil in Amélie’s eyes._

_“And what of my own dreams, Angela? What about what I want?” Amélie asked her, freezing her from touching her shoulder. “I want to see the world. I want to travel. I want…”_

_“I love you,” Angela stammered, “I love you. I...If that’s what makes you happy, I won’t stand in your way.”_

_She could hear Amélie’s cries as she left the dorm room, her own tears not coming out until she was in her car, driving away from the only person she’d ever given her heart to._

\---------------

The arrangement was simple: Every time Amélie was sent on a mission, she would find out as well, thanks to Sombra. Exact coordinates, mission details, everything, the hacker gave to her willingly, even telling her how many other agents were there. Sombra added an extra day on Widowmaker’s logs, making sure Angela got time to flush out whatever nanites Talon injected into the sniper and replace it with healthier, more stable ones.

If either side fell through, they would meet in Oasis, where Talon had a surprisingly passive grip, and where Angela had her own private labs and quarters. Sombra seemed willing to give her all the data regarding the nanites stolen from her lab, surprisingly not by the hacker herself.

She worked on flushing out the bastardized nanities out of Amélie’s system, the process normally taking overnight to allow her own batch to eliminate the foreign threats. Sit down session with Amelie, trying to piece back together the woman from before was more time consuming. Other than working on Amelie, she worked both their cybernetic implants. Neural implants was her expertise of course, one of many she had helped develop before she focused her efforts on nanites.

“You’re doing it again,” Sombra called out, making her glare at the woman sitting by the now sleeping Widowmaker. It’s been tough, working on her like this. Trying valiantly to bring her back not really sure if  it was worth it or not. “You do that a lot. Zone out, especially when you look at her.”

“Do you ever just shut up?” Angela wondered, earning a chuckle from the other woman.

“No, and you’re not the first person so ask. Won’t be the last.”

“Joy…” Angela grumbled, analyzing the data in front of her again. Progress was slow, but she was making a breakthrough. While Sombra managed to stabilize Amélie’s implant but still shield Talon from finding out what was wrong with it, Angela worked on stabilizing Amélie herself. It wasn’t easy but she was making progress.

At first, Amélie angry, frustrated at the emotions, begging her to make them go away. She would lash out, Angela just backing away when she did so. Angela would calmly speak to her, sometimes not speaking at all but allowing Amélie to accept her presence. She knew she couldn’t rush this. Years of programming and dependence on the treatments that was bound to kill her slowly adding to Widowmaker’s frustrations.

Only last month did Angela make a breakthrough. For the first time, Amélie didn't want to kill her when she uttered her real name. Or her late husband’s name. She’ll take the victory where she could.

Angela still couldn’t place, though, why Sombra was helping with this. Why she accompanied Amélie most times they met, especially when they met here in Iraq.

“I heard you answered the Recall,” Sombra mentioned off handedly, Angela looking beyond her screen to see her smirk. “Took you long enough. You really can't say no to that big lug can you?”

“Big? Have you seen Torbjorn?” Angela quipped, earning a laugh from the hacker. “Why I answered, is none of your business.”

“Ah! But it is,” Sombra reminded her. “Information is my business, Angie.”

“Don’t call me that.” Angela warned, hearing another hearty laugh. “You haven't earned the right to call me that name.”

“Hit a nerve did I? And I thought we were become friends.”

“I’m working with you. For her.” Angela pointed to the sleeping woman in the adjacent hotel room. “And only for her. Doesn’t make us friends. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re a wanted criminal.”

“I wonder how Overwatch would feel about you willingly offering you help to us then.”

\------------------

_“I wasn’t expecting you of all people,” Angela said into the night air, already knowing who was behind her. She wore the same perfume as before; subtle hints of lilac and rose mixing with….Angela gulped, willing herself not to remember._

_“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you either,” Amélie insisted, placing her own flute on the ledge. “How have you been, Dr. Ziegler?”_

_The words sounded foreign to her, coming from Amelie. “Well,” Angela acknowledged, eyes going to the big diamond ring on the other woman’s hand, “Not as well as you it seems.”_

_Amélie let out a laugh, Angela flinching at the sound._

_Oh how she missed that sound._

_“Lots has changed, Angie.”_

_“I can see that,” Angela kept looking at the ring on Amélie’s hand. “Mrs. Lacroix.”_

_“Still haven’t found anyone for yourself?” Amélie questioned, Angela stiffening at the question. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”_

_“Does he treat you well?” Angela deflected, looking at Amélie for the first time since she came out to the balcony. Her hair was longer, eyes still carrying the same gentleness that she remembered._

_“Yes.”_

_“Good...That’s good. I’m glad you found someone.”_

\-----------------

The Recall and subsequent retraction of the Petras Act made it harder to meet. Talon was still in the forefront of Overwatch’s list of organizations to take down, too much bad blood to ever let it fall to the wayside. If she was honest with herself, and Angela rarely is, she would admit she was surprised by the retraction, given that some nations didn’t like Overwatch to begin with.

However, the recent events in Numbani and the UK changed the world’s stance on Overwatch. The attacks in the museum and London only solidified public stance that Overwatch needed to be brought back, making governments go on alert of known Talon members.

Like the ones in her flat right now.

With their previous arrangement less manageable now, the backup of meeting at Oasis became the new norm. Overwatch didn’t really question her motives to go back twice a month, under the guise of checking on her research team and the next batch of nanites. It was a half truth, since she did those things and more.

She was a board member for the Ministry of Biology after all and genius did have its perks.

She scoffed at the term. Genius. It was often used to describe her, along with a number of flourishes that came with her titles: Doctor. Head of Surgery. Head of Medical. 3 time winner of the Lasker Awards. Number One Research Scientist on Nanotechnology.

But still it afforded her these luxuries. All those titles and accolades did provide her enough money to live on when she was out on the field. The current state of Overwatch didn’t pay as much as it once did but Angela knew it wasn’t about the money this time.

“You’re done,” Angela said, unhooking the wires from Sombra’s spine. “I still don’t know how you managed that.”

Sombra just shrugged, rolling her arm to crack it. Angela frowned at the sound, making a mental note to check that later. “Dude got lucky. Puta wasn’t expecting my backup though,” Sombra nodded her head to the woman looking out the window in the other room. “She’s doing better. You really do know how to work your magic.”

“It isn’t magic,” Angela defended, glaring at Sombra who started to laugh.

“Oh by the way, here,” Sombra said pulling handing her data pad to her. “Seems like you Overwatch agents are hard to kill, even your old ones.”

>>> Mercy. Report in.

>>> Ana and Jack. They’re alive and coming to the Watchpoint now.

>>> Mercy, ETA 2hrs. Be ready.

“It seems you dont have the monopoly of raising the dead anymore, Doc.”

\-----------------

_“Leave me,” Genji cried out, Angela just sighing as she jotted another note down. His temper was getting worst. His frequent outbursts was getting to be a nuisance, especially when her staff has to default a routine check up to her.  “I said leave.”_

_“I heard you,” Angela replied, touching the desk beside her. “But no. I won’t leave. Not until I check your cybernetics.”_

_She could feel Genji leer at her, even from behind the mask. His temperament didn’t really surprise her based on who the man was before they found him. Genji Shimada’s profile wasn’t really the most outstanding when she was briefed on him yet she remembered Jesse having a similar past._

_And Jesse was now a goofball she called friend._

_Still, she’d have to report this to Ana and Morrison. They couldn’t have him become a liability due to this dislike of the organization. “I could easily put you in a medically induced coma until I’m done, you realize this right? I’m giving you a choice.”_

_“You did this to me,” Genji voice was lower, more harboured. The cores were overheating. He had 2 minutes, maximum, before they start backfiring. “I didn’t want this!”_

_“Under strict, direct orders from Strike-Commander Morrison, yes,” Angela replied, looking at her watch. “1 minute.”_

_“You played god.”_

_“I had orders to saved your life,” Angela said, glaring at him. “And I did. You’re welcome.”_

_“I didn’t ask to be saved.”_

_Angela sighed again, “We can’t always get what we want, Mr. Shimada. 30 seconds.”_

_“What?” Genji asked, Angela just looking at him as the glow on his exo-suit went from green to yellow to red. “What’s happening to me?”_

_“The cores have overheated and are now backfiring,” Angela replied, taking out the remote in her pocket. With a press of a button, the cores hissed, Genji jumping in surprise as air rushed in and out of his system. “Now, this button just saved your life. Again. This button,” Angela pointed to the one below it, under case. “Injects a powerful tranquilizer into your system, putting you to sleep so I can work on fixing you.”_

_She could feel Genji’s anger rising. She’d dealt with his kind before._

_She, after all, has to deal with Jack and Gabe every day._

_“Now, what will it be, Genji? Coma or you sitting the fuck down so I can look at you without harm?”_

\-----------------------

Angela laughed as Fareeha continued to explain what happened during her last mission, imitating the McCree’s accent and 76’s ire perfectly. Subtlety wasn’t really the Captain’s forte, and as much as she tried, Fareeha kept failing at hiding her hints of her attraction to Angela.

Fareeha’s mere presence, both on and off the field, commanded presence. It was as if she was bred for command, both her mothers being military women on their own right, the blood of generations of Amari distilled into the goofball that was in front of her right now. “And then you just hear in the comm, “FOR FUCKS SAKE! GET MOVING!” Fareeha said, imitating Lena.

Angela chuckled, taking a sip out of her cider. In a different world, she thought, Fareeha would have been perfect; she was smart, funny and chivalrous. She knew how to separate work from her personal life.

In a different world, maybe they would make a great pair.

But Angela knew it was futile. She loved Amelie, even after all these years. Fareeha, on the other hand, was too blind to see what was staring at her...more like glaring daggers at Angela from around the corner.

“She’s doing it again, you know,” Angela whispered, stopping Fareeha mid sentence. “Satya. She’s looking like she’s about to murder me.”

“What? No,” Fareeha said, looking behind her to see no one. Angela rolled her eyes. Of course Fareeha would miss it. She always did.

“Everytime we’re together, either when we’re training or just catching up, she has a scowl on her face,” Angela pointed out. “She likes you. A lot.”

“Satya likes me?” Fareeha questioned, Angela biting her tongue on how dense her friend could be.

“For someone who is so observant on the battlefield, you have got to be the worst on telling when people like you or not,” Angela chided, Fareeha frowning at the revelation. “She likes you, Fareeha. Go talk to her.”

“And what about you?” Fareeha asked, taking a long sip out of her own cider.

“What about me?” Angela asked defensively, Fareeha just shrugging at her.

“Is this why you keep going back to Oasis? Because you’re already with someone?”

Angela thought about it. It wasn’t far from the truth. However, her ‘relationship’ with Amélie was still not defined. It wasn’t even in the parameters of patient/doctor since it was all off book. “Something like that.”

\-----------------------

_She came running as soon as she heard, Pasquale, her assistant trailing right behind her._

_Lena._

_A month ago, she was with Lena, helping the younger girl as the young pilot suited up for the inaugural flight of the Slipstream. Lena checked herself on the mirror before putting on her sunglasses, giving herself a nod of approval before beaming at Angela. Angela chuckled as she whipped her scarf around dramatically. She liked Lena. She was different from the rest of them. Her smile was infectious, her friendship coming easy and it felt like having a little sister around all the time._

_She was there when it happened, monitoring Lena’s vitals from the control room when she disappeared. She remembered screaming, Ana barking orders to go to the crash site immediately. It was painful, losing a friend like that._

_But this..._

_The sensors picked up her badge, opening the door immediately. Angela gasped when she saw her friend in the chamber, panic and confusion in her eyes. Winston was mumbling by his console while Ana, in her own typical fashion, continued to yell out orders at the others._

_“Lena,” Angela said, holding her hand up to the window. Lena said something but the glass muffled the girl’s words. Angela felt the tears coming down, pain of losing another friend coming back to her. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out. Winston and I will figure this out._

_“I’m here. I got you.”_

\----------------------

Angela leered at the screen that showed some of her ‘teammates’, the bright young faces of Hana ‘D.Va’ Song and Lena ‘Tracer’ Oxton showing proudly on the screen. The announcer used the word again, each utterance making her loathe the word more and more.

She knew other geniuses, Overwatch tended to recruit them after all. But most of them, if not all of them, paid the price for that title, some more than others.

Lena was the perfect example of that. She was another.

She looked back at the screen, to where Hana and Lena giving an interview back in Korea, the screen showing their latest mission in Hanamura, Lena zipping to and fro while Hana used her defense matrix to protect a group of civilians trapped by the heavy fire of unknown masked assailants.

“Bah! Idiots they recruited for that had no aim!” she heard Sombra cry out, tossing a chip at the screen. The woman always seemed to take a personal offense when Talon lost to Overwatch, making Angela smile behind her back.

“Please pick that up,” Angela said without looking back. The holo pad showed 80% finished. She looked back to the TV, Angela saw the brief flash of pain in Lena's eyes as she was asked about her early days, about the incident that tore her out of the sky and out of time.

She remembered meeting the eager teen back when she was recruited. Songs of praise often accompanied a genius and Lena's introduction to Overwatch was no exception. She was 17, the same age that Angela was approached. Unlike Angela though, Lena jumped on the opportunity immediately. She was already an accomplished RAF trainee, heralded to be the next Amelia Earhart, and Angela bit her tongue on the implication.

Sometimes she hated herself for her sixth sense.

Hana was speaking again, Lena adding something, the television translating it for the viewers. Hana smiled when she was asked a question, the title of the latest game now showing on the big screen behind them. The host spoke rapidly, showing off the controller before handing it over to Hana.

Hana was a tactical and technological genius, her ability to master a game unparalleled even to her. Only one other person she knew of compared to her.

The one who insisted on putting the show on in the first place.

“She’s cocky, ain’t she?” Sombra said, munching on some chips she had brought along with her. Angela hummed as an acknowledgement, tapping on the console to release the wires from Amélie’s visor.

Amélie gave her a smile, whispered a small thank you before sitting up. 5 months now, she’s been working WITH them. She reminded herself that it was WITH them, not for them. “She is exceptional,” Amélie commented, watching the screen as well. “Arrogant but she is talented.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” Angela joked, earning a middle finger from the other woman in the room.

“Mentiras,” Sombra called out, earning a chuckle from Amelie. It wasn’t the same laugh as she remembered; it was deeper, hollower. But still distinctly Amelie. “She’s fucking lying!”

“I wasn’t talking about you,” Angela chided, earning another middle finger from Sombra.

“Me then?” Amélie inquired, genuinely curious about her statement. Angela nodded, helping her off the table. “What was I like back then?”

“How much do you remember?” Angela asked, keeping her eyes down on the holopad in front of her. All of Amélie’s vitals were good. She had to inject less and less of her nanities in Amélie’s system to fight the ones Talon keeps putting into her, Sombra’s acting lessons seemingly paying off as well as the organization hadn’t caught on.

She looked at the schematics on the holopad, the spinning heart of the woman in front of her showing where the clamps had been put in place to slow her heartbeat down. She didn’t know if she could risk taking the clamps off the valves of her heart yet, not when Amélie hadn’t consented to it. But she’d rather be prepared for the procedure, come the day she is asked.

“Fragments,” Amélie said, stretching her arms over her head. “I remember the stage. Dancing. Lots of classical music. A violin.”

“You were one of the best dancers and musicians in the University,” Angela recalled with a hint of pride in her voice. “You practiced both your ballet and your violin religiously, always leaving the door ajar to your practice room to let your classmates come practice with you if they wanted. And people enjoyed you practicing for them, especially when you would curse at a mistake you made.”

“There was one time that you left a composition to the last minute one night. You wrote it only an hour before you had to play. I remember watching you explain the composition to your professor. What you played though...it moved him. Made people stop and come into the room to listen,” Angela said remembering the performance well. “They asked you how you found inspiration for the piece and all you did was look at me.”

“We were together. I remember that.”

“We were,” Angela confirmed, already knowing the next set of questions. She’d played this scenario multiple times in her mind before. All of them with the same outcome. She was ready for it.

“What happened between us?”

Angela sighed, looking up to the golden eyes that she didn't recognize. Amélie’s eyes were always hazel, not this artificial gold. “Fate.”

\-----------------

_They only ever so each other during formal events, Angela thanking Gerard for not forcing Amélie to come to every event. But tonight was special, in more ways than one._

_She’d read somewhere that Amélie Giroux was to be the principal dancer in some foreign ballet company. Angela smiled, knowing Amélie was fulfilling her dreams. Even if it wasn’t with her._

_“Congratulations on principal,” Angela said, raising her glass as Amélie approached her. It was a celebratory gala, filled with Overwatch’s top brass and important allies. Their breakthrough with Lena’s chronal accelerator had made headlines around the world, Angela, Winston and Torbjorn being shortlisted for the Nobel prize for Physics._

_“Congratulations on the accolade,” Amélie replied, her hand slipping out of Gerard’s. “I hear you preformed a miracle; brought someone back when they were at death’s door.”_

_Angela quirked an eyebrow, “Gerard tells you of work?”_

_“Only what I ask of him,” Amélie admitted. “Of you mostly. He tells me you’re dating someone. Some researcher from Poland. Magda…?”_

_“Jealous are we?” Angela teased, Amélie chuckling. “I’m afraid his information is outdated. She broke up with me a week ago.”_

_“Angela…”_

_“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”_

\---------------------------

“You’re not much different than her, you know,” Angela pointed out, Sombra looking back from the video to look at her. “You and Hana.”

Angela turned her head to see Hana smirk, Lena rolling her eyes behind her as she moved the player character with ease and precision, like she’s played the game before. Angela couldn't help but smile as well, knowing what the girl was capable of. She'd seen it first hand, multiple times.

Hana, the wonderkid of the gaming community turned soldier. Recruited to the MEKA program at the age of 15, despite international laws against recruiting someone so young. Desperate times called for desperate measures after all. And South Korea was desperate against that God Program. At the age of 19, she was already a Sergeant Major in the military, Angela marvelling at her quick ascension in the ranks but at the same time, worried about the girl’s well being.

D.Va's prowess on the battlefield, her ability to judge when and where she was needed and her adaptability had made her a valuable part of the group. She could see through the smug confidence that Hana exuded, many of the others Jack in particular, excusing her to be brash and irrational.

Angela scoffed internally, remembering their latest argument, only won out by Fareeha's intervention, thankfully the Captain taking her side against the former commander. Angela wholly defended Hana, knowing the girl's plan was a valid way to handle the ever increasing threat of Talon. Every decision Hana suggested she supported, much to Jack's and Ana's dismay.

But Angela knew they understood. Knew that their ways, the old ways, wasn't going to be enough. Not anymore. Not when the war has turned into a battle of information. Technology had gotten better and not when Talon possessed the genius of a woman that was sitting on her couch right now. “I’m not sure if I should be offended or flattered.”

Angela shrugged, moving into her office to sit down with Amélie for their session. “Do you need anything before we start?” she asked, Amélie keeping her eyes on the picture behind her desk.

“No but I do have to ask,” Amélie said, looking at her directly. She was getting used to the gold eyes. It suited her now dark blue hair. “Why are you helping me, Angela?’

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” she replied with practiced ease.

“You go against Overwatch rules to ‘do the right thing.’ Does that not worry you?”

“No.”

Amélie looked at her confused, eyes showing more emotion now than the first time they had met. “Why?”

“Because it’s you.”

\-----------------

_She was halfway across the world, giving a seminar in nanotechnology, when the news hit of Amélie’s disappearance. Angela felt despair set in after the first week, taking every opportunity to remind Jack of her multiple reports about the health and safety of family and civilian personnel. Gabriel had agreed with her, Ana did too. But it was Jack’s final say._

_And Jack didn’t listen._

_Gerard was furious and rightly so. His wife was now gone, taken while she was shopping, caught on camera and publicized for the world to see. She wasn’t close to Gerard, being stationed mostly in Switzerland and on the field with the Strike Commander mostly, but she couldn’t help but feel bad for head of the counter-terrorist division. Talon was his primary concern, attempts on his life was normal. She knew he kept his marriage a secret, Amélie only ever coming to formal events. Whoever leaked them the information about Amélie was going to pay a hefty price._

_Amélie’s reappearance a 2 weeks after her abduction always struck Angela as odd.  The fact she was brought to the Swiss HQ instead of the Paris one put her on edge but orders were orders. Her mind went through all the difference scenarios at once, of Amélie’s state. She anticipated the normal signs of torture._

_But as soon as Amélie walked through the HQ’s medbay doors, she was lost._

_Amélie was alive._

_While there was some on her body, it wasn’t the normal ones that she saw on other patients she’d treated for torture. Still, she approached Amélie like those soldiers, carefully noting every word that may trigger something from her patient._

_“I’m glad you’re back,” Angela said, putting the stethoscope away. Amélie merely nodded, pulling the cardigan back over herself. “I need to draw some blood from you, if I may,” Angela asked, pointing to the needed on the cart. “For testing.”_

_Amélie flinched, Angela noted when she saw the needle. “Did they use one on you? A needle?”_

_“I don't remember,” Amélie murmured, eyes looking around the medbay. Angela noticed that Amelie, subtlely, stopped longer when she saw one of the many cameras. “When do I get to go home?”_

_“When the psychiatrist clears you,” Angela mentioned, pulling the cart away. “I won't take your blood for testing right now. Only when you’re ready.”_

_Amélie watched her as she put the cart away, disposing of the gloves she wore for examination. “You’re free to go back to your bed.”_

_“I want to go home.”_

_“Not yet, Amelie. Not yet.”_

\-----------------------

As much as she tried to deny it, Widowmaker was still an assassin for Talon. Their sessions was all behind the closed doors of her flat and labs in Oasis. There, she was Amelie, someone who is trying to recover from years of abuse and get help regarding her neural implant. But outside of those doors, she was Widowmaker; Talon’s most prized and deadly assassin. Talon still held on to her ever-slipping leash but they still held onto it nonetheless.

So when news comes back from the panicked away team, when it was a safe retrieval mission, coupled by Lena cursing about “Widowbitch,” Angela had already assumed the worst.

What she wasn’t prepared for was the honest truth: Genji was shot right between the eyes, bullet still lodged at the front of his mask, indicating the shot was from behind. How Amelie, Angela paused, correcting herself; how Widowmaker manage such a shot on one of their most mobile and senior agents she didn’t know. Didn’t really care to know.

But there was Genji in Reinhardt’s arms, the other man fighting back tears as Angela checked him over. Genji, who, despite years of combat experience and spirituality, still had a tendency to dash ahead of everyone only to come back bruised and needing a tune up every time he went away on a mission.

With a nod, Angela allowed Reinhardt to carry him to the medical wing, mentally preparing herself to play coroner once more. She checked the rest of the away team, Lucio clearly more shaken than the rest but Angela gave him a smile. She knew the perils of their work; field medics rarely getting the chance to come out of work without a few scars. How it felt like to lose friends on the battlefield was a wound she knew too well. Fighting your own self for not saving them. Second guessing your abilities due to any number of failing from the team or the plan.

She knew that feeling way well.

She postponed the next two meetings in favour of staying with the Overwatch, helping set up counseling meetings who needed it and making sure they attended them.

Angela helped Hanzo prepare his brother’s funeral, the man seemingly more broken now than when they first met. She knew of their tumultuous relationship, how both brothers was just starting to make amends. The sadness in his eyes far outweighed the joy that the team could bring him, Angela often finding Hanzo alone on the roof with a bottle of something.

She tried, to talk to him, only getting rebuffed each time. So she let him grieve, let him take his own time with the steps she’d walked way too often herself. Hanzo laughed bitterly as he scattered Genji’s remains back home in Hanamura, mumbling something in Japanese she didn’t quiet catch.

The following session with Amélie and Sombra was quieter than she was used to. Sombra didn’t watch any of her videos, opting to listen to music as she worked on her touch ups.

Amélie on the other hand, looked pitiful. “I’m sorry,” she apologized again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t you,” Angela reaffirmed, checking the neural implant again. It was still in working order, unfortunately, but she could tell Sombra’s work on it. There was a set of distinctive pins missing, the ones that would have been directly attached to the medulla oblongata, making Angela smile.

“I remember it. It was me.”

“It was your programming,” Angela snapped, holding Amélie’s face in her hands. “We’ll find a way free you from them. We’ll find a way to make you, you again. I promise.”

Amélie nodded, Angela letting her go. “He was your friend...”

“He was.”

“Sombra tells me he liked you,” Amélie said flatly although Angela heard the slight hitch in her voice.

“A lot of people like me, if the websites are to be believed,” Angela shrugged, “And before you believe gossip, Fareeha is my training partner and teammate. She’s dating Satya Viswani. We’re not together like that.”

Amélie laughed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind Angela’s ear. Angela let herself lean into the touch, alarm bells going off in her head. The way Amélie looked at her though…

Amélie leaned up, capturing her lips in a soft kiss. Angela let herself get lost in it, hiding her disappointment when Amélie pulled away just as suddenly, still keeping her thumb on her cheek.

“We should go,” Sombra called out, eyes on her phone. “Any longer, we’re sure to catch the big guy’s attention.”

Amélie nodded, getting off the examination bed. “We’ll talk. Next time.”

“Yeah…” Angela replied, watching them leave, telling herself that the feeling she was getting at the pit of her stomach was just from the food she ate and not the growing attraction to her former girlfriend.

\-------------------

_Fury surged through her as soon as she had heard from Pasquale. She didn't even bother taking off the wings of the Valkyrie as she stormed to her medical wing. Those who saw her moved away immediately, anger etched on her normally calm face. Angela knew they weren’t used to that, used to her angry. Especially Reyes who gave her a concerned look but said nothing when she passed him._

_“Why?” the word dripped with venom, not even noticing the other occupants of the room, just the woman she reported to. “Why would you authorize her release?”_

_“Angela please,” Ana said, wincing as Monroe applied pressure on her wound. Pasquale tried to keep himself busy in the corner and pretended not to be interested. She didn’t care though._

_“You released MY patient without MY permission!” Angela yelled out. “You know she wasn’t ready to go back. Every FUCKING report I’ve filed and you SIGNED OFF ON told you she wasn’t ready! None of the tests cleared her! The psych eval didn’t clear her! Do you even read what I write in those reports?”_

_“Yes. And don’t you dare take that tone on me,” Ana challenged, Angela not backing down. “I told Jack about it. Told him about what your reports showed. That they are inconclusive and you have your suspicions. But understand the other side as well: a husband who wants his wife back. A commander who cannot command his team because of his worry. Gerard asked. Jack signed the release.”_

_“WITHOUT MY CONSENT!” Angela screamed. “None of you have a degree in psychiatry! None of you is the Chief Medical Officer! I do! And I am! No one but me should have had the final say in this matter, not even Jack.”_

_Ana sighed, getting off the examination table to look at Angela directly in the eye. “Take it up with the Strike-Commander then. What’s done is done.”_

\-------------------------------

“Stay on alert,” Jack commanded, Lena rolling her eyes beside her. “That means no taking naps, McCree! And I saw that!”

“Whatever! You’re not my dad,” Lena quipped, earning a laugh from Angela and Jesse. They could feel Jack glare from beneath his visor, leering at all three of them before going back inside. “Argh! I hate guard duty. It’s sooo boring.”

“That’s what you get for skipping your chores,” Angela reminded Lena, another groan coming from the younger woman.

“I’m an Overwatch Senior Agent! The fact that I’m even relegated clean up tasks is utter rubbish,” Lena complained, Jesse just chuckling. “Gabe wouldn’t have given us this shit!”

“Nah. Gabe would have hounded you down a lot earlier and hit you upside ya head,” Jesse said fondly. “You should know all about that. He trained ya too.”

“Trained all of us,” Lena replied, Angela shaking her head. “What?! Gabe didn’t teach you?”

“Ana was my mentor. Ana was the one who taught me how to shoot and defend myself,” Angela said, packing up the snacks she had brought for herself and McCree. “You think Gabe was hell? Try Mama Bear breathing down your neck.”

“You made her so mad that one time, I thought she was going to have an aneurysm,” Jesse reminded her. “Man, remember when Kamilah was visiting and you and Ana had a fight?”

“OH I remember that!” Lena piped in, laughing. “Kam gave you a cake afterwards no?”

Angela nodded, earning more laughter from her friends. “What did you guys fight about again?” Jesses asked.

“My halloween costume,” Angela reminded him. “Apparently it wasn't work appropriate.”

“Made my night that’s for sure,” Lena winked at her, Angela blowing her a kiss as Jesse groaned. “God that costume was something else.” The three of them laughed, remembering the stark contrast that the three commanders brought to their lives.

Jack was always too serious, too much like a dad, on and off the field. Jesse and her initially bonded over their dislike of Jack but overtime, Angela had grown to respect him. Jesse never did. His decisions during the final years of the original Overwatch clearly haunted the man now called Soldier:76.

Gabe was feared. Gabe was as serious as Jack was on the field but off it, Gabe was _the dad_ ; bad jokes and guilt trips included. He was tough on those he loved, Jesse reminded her, Lena agreeing with him. He took it as a personal offense when someone would hurt his recruits, especially when it came to his favourites. Gabe was the one you wanted went to when you were in trouble, since reprimands were often short but he made sure you learned from it. Jack was the one you wanted to go to when you didnt want Ana to find out.

Ana though, Ana was the one no one wanted to mess with. She was officially the second in command to Jack, but anyone who can put both Jack and Gabe in their places with a simple glare was formidable. Angela was one of the lucky ones who was able to see how much of a dork the older woman was, especially when it came to her family. Kamiliah, Ana’s wife, was fond of Angela, often coming to visit her lab when she was over. Angela attributed Ana’s tolerance of her outbursts to fear of her wife. That was the only logical explanation of it she was able to come up with.

“Do you regret coming back?” Jesse asked, looking at Angela.  Lena opens an eye, clearly listening. “I know you’re super busy with your stuff in Oasis.”

“She’s busy with a girl, that’s what it is,” Lena suggested, winking at Angela. Angela frowned at her, making Lena smirk even more. “That’s what Fareeha told me it was”

“Fuck Angie, I thought we were best friends!” Jesse cried out, faking being appalled. “Why did Fareeha find out about your girl before I did?”

“She guessed it,” Angela admitted, taking a sip out of her water bottle.

“So you don't deny it? It’s a girl then?” Jesse yelled out, poking Angela’s shoulder. “Details! I need details!”

“I want a double date,” Lena added, closing her eyes again. “We need to meet her, Angie. I’m sure we’ll like her.” Angela remained silent, not really knowing what to say.

\-------------------------

_Angela stood over to the side, umbrella being held above her head by one of her assistants who continued to cry beside her._

_Gerard Lacroix was dead._

_At the hands of his wife, who had now disappeared._

_Her eyes scanned the crowd. Ana’s jaw was set, indicating she was tense. Reyes and the rest of Blackwatch and Gerard’s strike team stood around her, Reyes clearly upset about what happened._

_She continued to glare at the man they called the Strike Commander. Jack was giving the eulogy, most of Overwatch coming out of the funeral that shouldn’t have been._

_“Angie, you’re bleeding,” Jesse pointed out, taking his handkerchief to give to her. She tasted the blood on her lips, apparently biting down hard enough to draw blood. Jesse rested his good arm on her, the other still in the sling after the accident in Vladivostok._

_Angela heard Jack say Amélie’s name, her jaw clenching as she bore holes into her superior’s head. Jesse patted her shoulder, trying to help her through this but it wasn’t helping. Nothing was._

_She was furious. Jack’s decision costed them greatly._

_And she was the one facing the brunt of the blame._

_Angela locked eyes with Ana, the sniper meeting her gaze with a stern one of her own. She knew she couldn’t say anything here. Not when everything was fresh and raw._

_So she left, shrugging Jesse’s hand away and the concerned look Reyes gave her as she passed him. She ignored the looks she got from the rest of them, the cries of her assistant as she entered her car to drive away from the funeral._

_Only back in her own office did she let the tears fall. It just wasn’t fair._

_She lost Amélie again._

\----------------

The frequent trips back to Oasis was eventually going to be questioned, that much she knew. One quick ring to her lab and she would be found out. But the fact it was now December, 9 months after she had started the ‘arrangement’ with the enemy, wasn’t questioned yet, was outstanding. Angela long guessed that someone would have asked her already.

“You’re seriously spending your holidays doing field work in the middle of the Sahara?” Sombra asked her, leaning against the counter. “The fuck is wrong with you?”

“I’m a doctor, if that wasn’t evident enough,” Angela snapped back.

“Sombra, leave her be,” Amélie said, giving Angela a warm smile. Sombra blew them a raspberry but said nothing more.

Where Sombra all played into Talon really confused Angela. Sombra was talented, that much wasn’t a question. But it seemed like the woman had her own agenda within the organization. Sombra knew of Angela's previous work, somehow stealing it even though it was buried under heaps of rubble and debris. She knew of the experiments, of what happened that day in Switzerland.

What her technology was really capable of.

But Sombra was surprisingly cautious even though she hid it behind an air of confidence and smugness. Angela knew how that was. She lived it, every day before the fall. Some would still argue that even now, she was still like that.

Something Angela didn't account for though was Sombra's selfishness. She had every opportunity to release the information on her technology to the world, to the highest bidder, to add to the chaos but she didn't. She hasn't. She kept the information to herself much like a dragon hoarding its precious gold. Sure, she’d used it to get Angela to help her with do check ups, but beyond that, Sombra seemed content to keep her secret

“And you? What do you plan on doing for the holidays?” Angela asked, earning a shrug.

“Visit a friend? Maybe go back to Calaveras,” Sombra replied, eating the bowl of cereal she had commandeered from Angela’s pantry.

Angela eyed Amelie, the woman seeming to be in deeper thought than before. They had made progress. A lot of it. Her nanites was keeping Amélie sane for the most part, Sombra keeping an eye on the neural implant. Unfortunately, Talon’s treatments was getting longer and longer. Sombra sent her the video of one of the sessions, the time stamp telling her everything; 7 hours of endured breakdown and ‘rebuilding’. Widowmaker was still Talon’s puppet to their twisted desires.

She had talked at length to Sombra about it; a way to break Amélie out. They hadn’t asked Amélie yet, since the plan was still in its infancy but Sombra, in her own way, was all up for it. It made Angela want to believe that she did genuinely care for Amelie. Almost.

“And you, Liebling?” Angela asked, giving Amélie a soft touch on the arm. Sombra raised an eyebrow at the term of endearment but said nothing about it.

“I might visit Gerard,” Amélie bluttered out, eyes falling to her hands. “It’s been far too long.”

Angela’s smile dropped. Amélie was still, by all accounts, Mrs. Gerard Lacroix. She might not have taken his name out of safety concerns however there was still a marriage certificate binding both of them legally. Angela was about to speak when sensors outside the flat chimed. “Who?”

“Angie!!!” a very familiar, very chipper voice called out from beyond the door, making Angela pale. Sombra dropped the spoon into the bowl, grabbing Amélie and the bag they brought with them into the bedroom. Angela did a quick scan of the apartment, nothing else seemingly out of place before opening the door to Lena. “You ready love?”

“You didn’t have to pick me up, Lena,” Angela eyes going to the bedroom. Lena waved her off, looking around the apartment. “I should be ready in a moment. Just have to pack the rest of my bags.”

“Did you say bye to your girl?”

“Not yet,” Angela acknowledged, eyes flitting back to the bedroom. “I’m going to call her now. I’ll meet you downstairs, at the hotel. We’ll get lunch before we go.”

“As long as you’re buying doc,” Lena replied, giving her a salute before blinking out of the apartment. Angela let out the breath she was holding in, Sombra materializing beside her not a second after.

Sombra clicked her tongue, watching as Angela take in what just happened. “You didn’t tell us she was here.”

“I thought you knew everything?” Angela questioned, Sombra bristling. “No matter, we were done for the day anyways. Everything should be okay until after the holidays, even her shots.”

“Good,” Sombra conceded, motioning towards the bedroom. “You have about 30 minutes to say goodbye to your girl.”

“She isn't my girl,” Angela defended, Sombra just raised an eyebrow at her, eyes not believing what she had said. Angela left her in the kitchen with a huff, entering the bedroom to see Amélie’s pained look. “I didn’t mean it in that way. I…”

Amélie stood, tipping Angela’s chin up to look up at her. “And if I wanted to be your girl again?” Angela heard herself whimper, Amélie brushing her thumb over her lip, Angela losing herself in the touch.

Angela leaned up to meet Amélie half way, the kiss more desperate than the one from before. Angela wrapped her arms around Amélie’s neck, Amélie pulling her closer with her free hand. She missed this, desperately wanted this more than anything else, but the nagging voice at the back of her head screamed for her to stop. Angela pulled away reluctantly, eyes fluttering open to see the confusion in Amélie’s eyes. “I...I shouldn’t keep Lena waiting otherwise she’d come back.”

“I’m going to miss you,” Amélie confessed, touching their foreheads together, Angela wrapping her arms around Amélie’s body, holding her tightly.

“Me too.”

\-------------------------

_She theorized long ago on how Overwatch would fall: death of a prominent member leading to allegations of corruption via bribery and internal sabotage ranked high on her list._

_Gerard’s death crossed off the first part of her theory, it being the tip of the iceberg that was now too hard to contain internally. The council wanted to have details about Amélie and to Jack’s annoyance (and truthfully, Angela’s pettiness) she provided them every report she made, every instance where she advised the others that Amélie shouldn’t be released. That no one listened to her expertise._

_Now Talon had an assassin in Amelie._

_And she just took out their own sniper and the second-in-command, bringing the failings of the organization to the forefront of the media. Ana was Ana; Commander in her own right and a prominent figure in the Egypt and Overwatch alike. She was on most of the posters and acted as the official press liaison for the organization._

_Reinhardt was livid at the news, Angela practically having to keep him sedated from going on a rampage through the base. They never found Ana’s body, the funeral becoming more of a media circus due to Ana’s rank and military prestige. Fareeha was there, beside her other mother, Kamilah, both of them stoic as they lowered the empty coffin into the ground._

_She started more and more to distance herself from the organization, taking up the offer from her old university professor, Mehmet Farhat himself, for a position on the board of the Ministry of Biology out in Oasis._

_The forced retirement of Reinhardt, the group’s constant mediator, widened the rift between Jack and Gabriel, Jesse and herself having to chose sides most meetings, their own friendship apart by the now constant feud between Overwatch and Blackwatch._

_Angela sighed, packing her bag yet again, but this time, it was to the Hague. Not once did she imagine having to testify against the organization that helped her make a name for herself. Lena gave her a pained smile, Jesse not even acknowledging her when she passed him in the hallway, knowing she was about to testify against him and the rest of Blackwatch, vilifying them as traitors to the organization that raised them both._

_This was what Overwatch brought, she thought. Loss and Abandonment._

_Just like the war did with her parents._

_But worst since she can remember this time around._

\----------------------

“I need to talk to you,” Jesse said, bursting into the the medbay, Angela giving him a quizzical look that soon turned to anger. “Oh shit! Sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Jesse!” Angela exclaimed, pointing to the door and the clearly red light on top. “For fucks sake, the light was on!”

“I’m sorry, I forgot to check,” Jesse replied, “Sorry Fareeha.”

Angela waited until the door closed again, sighing hard as she continued to wrap the fresh bandage around Fareeha’s stomach. “He seemed serious about that talk,” Fareeha pointed out. “Jesse serious can only spell one thing.”

“Trouble,” Angela finished the thought, cursing in German. Fareeha luckily let her continue her dressing in silence, giving her a last concerned look as she limped out of the medbay. “Remember! No hard training! I WILL tell Satya about this!” Angela reminded the soldier, hearing her groan when her girlfriend’s name was mentioned.  “YOU.”

“Not here,” Jesse commanded. “Your room or mine, but not here.”

“Jesse, I’m flattered but…” Jesse stopped her with a glare, Angela taken back with the hatred in his eyes. “My quarters are closer. Come.”

The walk to her rooms was quiet, the air filled with tension she didn’t couldn’t really place. “Athena, all recording off. Now.”

“Access denied,” Athena’s mechanical voice chimed in, Jesse letting out a growl.

“Athena, protocol Zeta-Tau. Authorization: CMO code 58763,” Angela repeated, Athena acknowledging the code. “Wanna tell me what’s going on?”

Jesse tossed her the data pad he had been holding, the familiar logo of Sombra on the screen. “She asked me to bring that to you. Personally.” Angela gulped, reading what Sombra had put on the data pad. “Explain. Now.”

“I don't have to,” Angela retorted, showing him the screen. “She’s telling me she told you everything already, Joel.”

“My name aint Joel!” Jesse gritted out. “I don’t know where that bitch dug that name out but that ain't my name!”

“And you know Sombra how?”

“Blackwatch,” Jesse replied. “She was one of our informants. Tough kid, even back then. Kept in touch with her. We spent the Christmas drinking our minds out.” Jesse sighed, looking at her with tired eyes. “We’ve been friends for years, Angie. I know we fell on some rough times but I still consider you one of my best friends. Just...tell me the truth. Please.”

Angela let out a sigh of her own, taking her glasses off and sitting herself on her bed. She looked up to see Jesse waiting. “10 months ago, Sombra came to me on Amélie’s behalf. Amélie is breaking from her programming, slowly but she’s breaking. The implant in her visor, Sombra has hacked into, keeping it from functioning at maximum capacity to allow my treatments to take effect.”

“Every time Amélie goes back in for reconditioning, Talon ups her dosage of unstable nanites and Flunitrazepam. Last I heard, which was back before the holidays, it was already at 12 hour sessions. 12 hours a day for 3 days straight she is pushed to her limits, both body and mind. The clamps on her heart already have a negative effect on her, the drug puts her into a state that she obeys what the neural implant tells her to do.”

“Christ…” Jesse said, not believing her words. Angela nodded, continuing her recounting.

“Sombra can’t interfere during the sessions without raising suspicions. With the implant now under Sombra’s control, Talon has started to inject her more and more. Surprisingly, Sombra considers Amélie a friend, and wanted to help her out. That’s why we made the arrangement: At least once a month, I would give Amélie a booster shot, something to counteract the unstable nanites. Even if Talon has their hands on my tech, they don’t have me working on it consistently. My nanites are stronger than theirs, able to destroy theirs in an instant,” Angela said proudly. “Her dependence on the drug was the trickier thing to work with, but I’ve made progress.”

“I don't expect you to understand, Jesse. I really don’t. But this is Amelie. And you already know about her and me,” Angela said, Jesse letting out another frustrated groan.

“She killed Genji!” Jesse reminded her. “She’s killed so many people, Angie.”

“So have you! And so have I. Hers though, wasn’t under her own will,” Angela justified, Jesse burying his face in his hands. “You of all people can’t fault her in that when your body count is nearly as high as hers.”

“Fuck…” Jesse cried out, eyes going wide with realization. “Oasis...the trips back...That’s who’ve been seeing. This is what you’ve been doing...her. You’re dating her...”

“I’m not dating her!” Angela countered.

“Angie! What the fuck are you thinking!”

“That I can save her! Save them, maybe even Gabe,” Angela confided, Jesse freezing when his mentor’s name was uttered. “I know it’s stupid. But you’ve got to trust my judgement on this, Jesse. Please.”

“You’re in love,” Jesse observed. “You’re still totally in love with her.”

“I never fell out of it.”

Jesse sighed, rubbing his temples. He eyed her carefully, his mind clearly processing the information he was just given. This was the same Jesse who would often leave her an apple to ‘keep her away’ as a joke but it had become a tradition amongst themselves. The one who, like her, had lost so much in their life but has tried to do what they could to make it better. “So what’s the plan?”

For the first time in what felt like hours, Angela smiled, Jesse mirroring her expression.

\----------------------

_Angela felt sick, absolutely positively sick. The HQ was gone. The communications tower, what used to be a 15 floor structure was now just a pile of rubble. Lena sat at the ramp of the VTOL jet, eyes distant as she watched the rest of them work.  Winston lifted the biggest rock with his good arm, Kimiko looking around underneath only to shake her head._

_“Who...why?” Lena asked, looking up at her. “Who would do such a thing?”_

_“I don’t know,” Angela said, looking back. Her lab, her work, was buried somewhere in there. Whoever did this knew the base, knew where to plan the charges._

_Kimiko waived her over, Angela giving Lena a pat on the shoulder as she passed, running towards the current de facto leader. “Yes ma’am?”_

_“We found Jesse,” Kimiko said, running towards where Mirembe and Singh were standing. “Angela, stay calm, please.”_

_“Why what…” Jesse lay on the ground, rubble cleared from around him. She could see the rebar coming out of his stomach, his left arm still pinned under a chunk of wall that fell. “Jess! What...no…”_

_“I tried to talk him out of it,” Jesse cried out. “I tried Angie, I really did.”_

_“Talk who? Jesse…” Angela asked, staff already enveloping him with its healing glow to try and stop the pain._

_“Gabe...Gabe did this...Oh god Angela. He convinced Blackwatch was the real Overwatch. That our methods were the right way. He...He found something in your lab. I tried to stop him but...He...It wasn’t him talking, Angie. He told me he shouldn’t have saved me. It wasn’t him, Angie. I swear it wasn’t.”_

_Angela let the tears flow, dropping her staff to hug her friend on the ground, holding him close until they were able to extract him from the rubble, her staff’s healing beam not leaving him until they had him in triage._

_She wasn’t permitted to operate on him, Angela forgetting that she and Jesse both had each other as family. Angela watching as they took his arm from him. It would take weeks for Jesse to accept it, his body also needing a protective armor as the rebar punctured his stomach. He stayed mostly with her, in her flat just outside of the city limits of Zurich, while he recovered. “What was in your lab, Angie? What did he find?” Jesse asked, Angela not daring to look at him._

_“Death.”_

_\----------------_

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. Far from it.

She had filled Jesse in reluctantly, although she knew it would have been near impossible to stop him when Gabriel was on the line. Jesse hadn’t given up on his mentor, his father figure. Jesse became another set of eyes and ears for her, reporting back to her what he could when she was back in Oasis. There was rising suspicion as to what she was doing, though no one really wanted to ask her.

So the arrangement went on as planned until….

Sombra grinned at her from the other side of the observation window, face still somewhat bruised from her brush with Lena. They managed to ‘ambush’ her when she came to collect from her ‘friend’ Katya, Zarya ready and willing to bring her back to the base. Something wasn’t up though.

“What’s the plan now?” Jesse asked her, putting out the cigarello he had finished.

“I’m thinking,” Angela replied, biting on her fingernails. This was bad. Really bad. They haven’t been able to meet for a while now, Sombra stopping communications 3 weeks ago now.

“Well think fast since Fareeha and Jack are about to interrogate her,” Jesse told her, eyeing the cameras in the hallway. Angela watched as Sombra wink at her. “We need her alive, Angie, to even have a shot at helping Gabe and Amelie.”

“I know…” Angela admitted, noting how far away Fareeha and Jack still are. “Stall for me. Tell them I’m doing her psych evaluation.” Jesse nodding to keep watch in the hallway once more. Angela breathed in deeply, adjusting her trademark ponytail before entering the hallway as well to go into the other room. “Athena, protocol Zeta-Tau. Authorization: CMO code 87754.”

“Angela I advise against this,” Athena’s mechanical voice chimed in, Angela just looking directly at the camera. “Understood.”

“We have 3 minutes. Where have you guys been? Why did you get caught on purpose?” Angela questioned, checking Sombra’s neural implant quickly. “This is nearly wrecked.”

“Yeah well, that’s what you get when you’re making a hasty escape,” Sombra hissed out, gritting her teeth while Angela touched the loose wire coming from the neural implant. “And we’ve been back at base. They have Amélie heavily guarded, now that the cat’s out of the bag.”

“This might hurt for a second,” Angela warned, grabbing the pen from her lab coat to pop the thin place at the back of the woman’s head, grabbing the wire to put it back in. “What happened?”

“Hakim happened,” Sombra told her, Angela taking out one of the nanite shots she kept in her coat for emergencies to treat Sombra. “Bastard found the discrepancies. Told the higher ups. They turned on me, I was only able to escape but my translocator is gone and my camo is on the fritz.

“And Amelie?” Angela asked, Sombra not looking at her. “Sombra…”

“I came to you as soon as I could. It’s up to 14 hours now. Any more and she’d be a goner,” Sombra pleaded, face relaxing as the nanites did their work, “You have to save her, Angie.”

Angela was about to respond when the door opened, Fareeha giving her a raised eyebrow, Jack hiding behind his mask. “Are you done your evaluation?” Fareeha asked.

“Yes, she’s all yours,” Angela replied, “I’ll have my report ready by the time you’re done here.”

“Understood. Thank you, Mercy.”

Angela nodded, giving Sombra one last look before joining Jesse in the observation room again. They watched the interrogation start, Sombra toying with Jack’s already short temper, Fareeha sitting and judging the woman’s intentions silently. “Fareeha is going to slap her with a triple life sentence,” Jesse reminded her. “Not to mention Jack’s going to use her as a scapegoat for all of the things that’s happened.”

“I know, Jesse,” Angela clenched her jaw, the only thing her mind was coming up with was to break the secret. “I know...”

\-----------------

_“What are you going to do now?” Angela asked him, Jesse shrugging as he cleaned out his gun on her coffee table._

_“Go back States side, I reckon. Heard there was a Talon cell out there that needs to have a couple bullets put in their heads.” Jesse replied,  not even looking up at her. The sun was setting over her flat, the sky illuminated in orange and yellow hues. “You?”_

_“Oasis,” Angela said, turning around to look out the window. “Focus on research again. Just something calmer.”_

_“You’d be so bored,” Jesse argued, Angela not denying the statement. She knew she would be. As much as she wanted just to focus on her research, she knew she would be so restless. “I give you 3 months before you’re back out on the field in your angel suit saving the world.”_

_“3 months? Really?”_

_“3 weeks actually,” Jesse said, grinning at her. “Shake on it?”_

_“I’m not making that bet with you,” Angela retorted, Jesse laughing at her admittance. “I will miss you though.”_

_“I’ll miss you too, Angie.”_

\------------------

“Angela, a word,” Ana said, Angela dismissing Jesse with a nod. “And you, Jesse McCree, I’m going to talk to afterward.”

“Guess I better go hide,” Jesse murmured, Ana glaring at him with her good eye. “I mean, yes Mama Bear. I look forward to it.”

“How can I help you, Ana?” Angela asked, Ana raising her eyebrow at her. “Something a matter?”

“Cut the bullshit, Angela. I’ve known you far too long to fall for that. Jack and Reinhardt might still fall for it, even now, but I know better,” Ana reminded her, Angela rolling her eyes. “Two CMO codes were used in the last 2 weeks, one in the interrogation cells yesterday. Video feed was miraculously cut during your ‘examination’ of Sombra.”

“Video glitches are still common, Ana. CMO codes are there for my protection, are they not? That’s why I used them,” Angela defended.

“The two codes you used cut video, audio and heat sensory ones. You’re hiding something,” Ana said. “I talked to Sombra today. She was surprisingly cooperative with me compared to when she was with Jack. Didn’t like me but still answered my questions with minimum sarcasm.”

“What do you want Ana?” Angela demanded, knowing already where this was going. Ana wasn’t the second in command of the previous Overwatch for nothing.

“You’re in over your head, Angela,” Ana reasoned. “I’ve been in your shoes. Trust me, I have. I feel your pain more than anyone about this. But you need to think this through.”

“I have, and I will save them both,” Angela argued.

Ana let out a tired laugh. “Kamilah was in your shoes, you know. I was her patient, more often than actually in the field. I was a little shit, getting into trouble, always being in nuisance in her hospital.”

“Does she regret it? Leaving the field for you?” Angela asked, Ana shaking her head. “Then why is it so  hard for you to understand why I want to do this?”

“Because I don't want you hurt when it doesn’t happen,” Ana admitted. “I’ve seen you grow up more than I ever saw my own daughter. I know I haven’t apologised to you yet, for leaving you like that with everything as a mess but I don’t want to see you hurt, especially not over her.”

Angela let in a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she thought about Ana’s words. She didn’t have all the answers, didn’t even have the odds in her favour right now. “I have to try, Ana. If I don’t try, then who will?”

Ana reached up to touch Angela’s cheek gently, “Oh Angela. Always trying to save everyone but yourself…”

“You’re one to talk,” Angela quipped, voice hitching slightly as she wiped the tears that had fallen away.

“You got it from me, I know,” Ana said, Angela laughing. “I was surprised Sombra cooperated with me. She’s interesting. Definitely a worthy asset if she sticks around.”

“She doesn’t hate you, only Jack,” Angela told her. “Blames him personally for not saving her parents and village.”

“Ah,” Ana said, hugging her. “I know you’ll find a way. You and Jesse, as much as I hate to admit it, are one hell of a duo when you put your minds to something. And if it helps, I’ve forgiven her, Amelie. Sombra told me what they’re doing to her. No one deserves that. And I want a rematch with her.”

Angela laughed, pushing herself away from Ana. “You and Jesse already have a plan, don’t you?” Ana asked, Angela only smiling at her as a response.

\----------------

_“You okay, Angela?” Mehmet asked, setting down some tea in front of her. “You seem more distracted than normal.”_

_“Was what I did a mistake? Joining Overwatch. Developing the Nanite tech?” she asked her mentor, Mehmet studying her face._

_“Do you believe it was?”_

_Angela hesitated. She’d heard of the wraith calling himself Reaper that had come after the explosion.  A ghost with a body of what seemed to be her prototype nanite technology she held back in the labs of Overwatch. The same technology that she had just used earlier that day to save a man from losing his leg, allowing him to continue his career as a football player._

_“No.”_

_“Yet you doubt yourself,” Mehmet pointed out. “What happened in Zurich wasn’t your fault. What is happening in the world, however, you can help with.”_

_Angela let the words sink in. It’s been 2 years since the incident, most of the world already having moved on. Her other lost technology, save for the biotic rifle she had helped design, was now being sold in the black market to the highest bidder. Thankfully most of her nanite tech was safe here, in Oasis, where it’s controlled on how and who gets access. The supply limit only available to her and 3 other colleagues, her mentor included._

_Mehmet set down his cup again, looking her in the eyes. “I trust and know you, Angela. And I know that when the time comes, you will do the right thing.”_

\----------------

This, Angela had predicted. So far, Jack was following her script for him to the tee, much to hers and Jesse’s amusement. Not that they would ever tell Jack that. Ana tried to hide her amused smile behind her tea cup, already knowing this was preplanned.

She had personally asked Fareeha for a team meeting, hoping to break it more to the team and get their collective help instead of Jesse’s initial plan of just the two of them breaking into Talon’s Berlin base to break Amélie and Gabriel out. So she played her hand, knowing full well that Jack would be furious.

“What were you thinking?!” Jack yelled out.

“My job!” Angela screamed back, playing her part of the ongoing play. “I’m a doctor. I am BOUND to help anyone who comes and asks for my help, no matter WHERE their affiliations lie.”

“You’ve been lying to us! For a year!” Jack accused, Angela giving him a bitter laugh.

“Oh that’s rich from a man who lied about being dead for YEARS,” Angela bit back, Ana flinching at the corner. “You left us. You left me to deal with all of the bullshit you brought on the group.”

“At least I wasn’t sleeping with the enemy!” Jack defended.

“No you were just trying to ruin a marriage!” Angela reminded him, Jack’s jaw clenching from under his mask. Angela could see the uneasiness of the newer agents, the drama they didn't know about coming out. Lena tried to hide further behind Winston, the scientist rubbing his temple at the ongoing fight.

“ENOUGH!” Fareeha yelled out, pulling Angela back. “What ever happened was in the past. Jack made some mistakes. Angela too. Now let’s get passed it to think this through.”

“Ethical questions aside,” Ana said, giving Angela a glare, “we still don’t know if Sombra has been lying to you about Gabe or Amelie.”

“Reaper and Widowmaker,” Jack corrected, getting glares from the rest of the team.

“They attacked Winston and I back at the Museum,” Lena added, “Not to mention the assassination of Mondatta and Genji…”

“Mei and I have been analyzing everything Angela gave us, everything Sombra has given her, surprisingly willingly,” Winston said, pushing his glasses up. “It’s not a lie. We can’t find any reason for her to lie about this. They are slowly killing Ame-Widowmaker. If it is already at 14 hour sessions, she’ll be dead within a week.

“And Gabe?” Fareeha asked, Angela watching Jack’s jaw clench again. “I know what he’s done, Jack. I know he attacked you and ammi back in Cairo. But if there was a chance…”

“You do this, I won’t be helping,” Jack replied.

“Who said we needed you anyways,” Jesse defended, Hana and Lucio choking at come back. “You lost your best friend. Lena and I lost our dad. So fuck you, Morrison.”

“Jesse,” Ana reprimanded, Jesse backing down again. “Jack, outside. Now.” Ana said getting up, Jack following her out.

Fareeha sighed, Satya placing a comforting hand on her girlfriend’s. “Thoughts?”

“I’m in,” Hana said immediately, giving Angela a wink. “Those assholes blew up my custom suit, I want payback.” Lucio and Jamison followed suit, the three forming a fast friendship that seemed like it would never work but somehow does...and did. Mako didn’t seem to mind his charge hanging out with people his own age either, Lucio’s constant cheeriness rubbing off on Jamison.

“I believe that our past doesn’t define us,” Satya said, everyone turning their attention to her. Satya rarely spoke during the meetings, taking everything in for Fareeha to review later. “If you need me, Angela. I’m with you.”

Fareeha groaned, knowing she was going to lose this battle already. “Fine! But I have 3 conditions for you two,” she said, pointing at Jesse and Angela. “One: Sombra stays under ‘house arrest’ here in HQ after this mission is done. She’s to work with Winston on fortifying our mainframes. Two,” Fareeha looking directly at Angela. “You cannot and will not work as a doctor on Amélie if we managed to pull this off. This is non-negotiable, Angela. Her care will be divided between Torbjorn for her implants and my mother for medical.”

“You really think Kam will agree to that? Amélie tried to kill her wife,” Jesse pointed out.

“Mama has tried to kill ammi more times than Widowmaker has, I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Fareeha proclaimed, getting several nods from the senior agents who knew Kamilah and Ana well enough. “And three, if we do somehow save him, Gabriel is to be placed in the same containment field Lena was in, until we can stabilize his….abilities.”

Angela and Jesse looked at each other, then to Lena who gave them a nod. “Deal.”

“Good,” Fareeha commanded, “Hana, start planning. We’re breaking into Talon.”

Jesse smirked, Angela giving him a wink as she left the room, passing by a still fuming Jack in the hallway.

Got you.

_\----------------_

_“Swanky,” Lena said, touching the painting by the window. “I hate to admit it, Angie, but I’m jealous.”_

_Angela laughed, pouring herself a glass of wine, grabbing a beer from the fridge for Lena. “Glad you can make it, Lena. I don’t get much visitors these days.”_

_“No? I could have sworn there was a gaggle of PHD students ogling you during your lecture,” Lena insinuated, Angela groaning. “Pretty sure one of them literally groaned when you turned around.”_

_“Please stop talking,” Angela begged, Lena still imitating the groan. “Argh Lena stop.”_

_“I just worry about you, Angie,” Lena said, bringing the beer up to her lips. “Jesse asked me to keep an eye on you. I don’t plan on letting him down. Esp since I’ve seen him pissed.”_

_“He will drag you from hell just to shoot you again,” Angela said, knowing Jesse’s threat well enough. “But I don’t need anyone protecting me, I’m fine.”_

_“When was the last time you had a date?” Lena argued, Angela’s silence giving her the answer she wanted. “Exactly.”_

_“I’m too busy to even keep a plant alive, let alone keep a relationship,” Angela confessed, Lena giving her a pained smile. “It’s better this way. Less disappointment.”_

_\----------------_

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Jamison cried out, Reinhardt putting his shield in front of them immediately as the tire screeched up above the wall, the sound of it exploding filling the air. “I love that sound.”

_ >>> Focus, Junkrat. Don’t let your guard down. Pharah out. _

“Hallway secure,” McCree called out, Reinhardt stowing his shield to take point, along with Mako. “How much further?”

_ >>> 10 feet, mijo. If you live through this, McCree, you owe me a drink _

“Fuck, if we do manage to pull this off, I’ll buy everyone a drink,” McCree acknowledged, Angela rolling her eyes.

_ >>> Keep him alive, Mercy. He made the promise now _

_ >>> Clear the comms, fuck. _

_ >>> You heard the tactician. Door on your left, Roadhog. 6 hostiles _

Mako nodded, Reinhardt already ready with his shield. “Now,” Reinhardt commanded, Mako unloading his scrap gun, pushing the Talon agents back with it’s blast. Reinhardt charged the remaining two into the far wall, eyes scanning the room quickly. “Clear!”

_ >>> Server room is that door there. Symmetra, if you please. _

“She’s fitting in well,” McCree commented, Jamison nodding in agreement. “Too well…”

“Think about it later, McCree,” Angela said, healing stream connected to Reinhardt again. Satya strode into the room. “Outside team, status report.”

 _“Holding up so far. Interpol is actually helping,”_ Lucio said, a laugh coming through the comms. “ _Talon really wasn’t expecting us, this is so weird. We’re normally in their shoes.”_

 _“Extraction team holding. Bastion is laying down some heavy support fire,”_ Mei reported.

Angela heard the telltale sound of Symmetra’s teleporter becoming online, Sombra, Tracer, Pharah and D.Va coming through the portal. “Good,” Sombra said, hand coming in contact with the servers. The other hand showed the full compound. “Amélie is at the back of this wall. It’s reinforced metal.”

“Piece of cake!” Jamison exclaimed.

“Surrounded by sentry turrets and about 20 armed guards,” Sombra finished, glaring at the younger man.

“Leave it to me and Rein. We can take out those turrets and guards,” McCree said, reloading the Peacemaker. “We’ll get Mercy in there.”

“There’s a smaller hallway when you get past it,” Sombra said, bringing up the schematics for that area. “Should have about 6 guards inside and another 6 guards in the chamber itself. We need someone to go and take out the scientists and release the wires and fluids.”

“Junkrat, Tracer and I will do that,” D.Va replied, getting a grin from Jamison. “Pharah and Mako, you guard Symmetra and Sombra while they extract everything from the servers. Talon would no doubt send more of its men this way. We need to buy them time to pull everything, and I mean everything from this.”

“Roger.”

“Good luck,” Lena said, zipping away with D.Va.

Junkrat smiled and gave Mercy one of his concussion mines and detainator. “Go get her, Doc. Just...clear out before you press it ya?”

“Thank you, Junkrat.”

“Let’s go.”

\------------------

“I can’t hold for much longer,” Reinhardt called out, Jesse managing to shoot another guard down while Mercy shot at the remaining sentry turret. “Shield going down soon.”

“Reinhardt, charge,” Jesse suggested, Reinhardt knowing the play well.

“HA!” Reinhardt said, dropping his shield to fully charge the Talon agents. Jesse lined up his shot, taking out all the turrets, the sound of Reinhardt’s hammer crushing against the ones he had pinned to the wall. “Charge planted!” Reinhardt called out, backing up to put his shield up again. “Go!”

Angele detonated the bomb, the blast revealing more Talon agents than expected.

“DIE DIE DIE,” a familiar voice said, the Talon agents dropping to the ground. The lone figure of the man they called the Reaper, Gabriel Reyes himself stood in the middle of the carnage, dropping another set of shotguns on the ground. “Always running late. You never learn.”

“Gabe…” Jesse said, taking off his hat. “You…”

“Why?” Angela asked what was on everyone’s mind.

“Because she didn’t deserve any of this,” Gabriel said, mask fading to reveal his face. “I know what I did. This,” he motioned to his body. “This, I deserved, but her…”

“Save her, Ziegler,” He ordered, pulling his hands on her shoulders like he used to, way back when. The footsteps of more Talon agents coming towards them was echoing in the halls now. “Save her and I will come willingly. I only joined to keep an eye on her. Even I was powerless in that.” Angela held back the tears, nodding as he pushed her back, mask forming over his face again. “You did good, Angie. I know you would. Now go, she needs you more than I do.”

“We’ll hold it here, go!” McCree said, Reinhardt’s shield back up to defend McCree and Gabriel as the steps came down the hall.

Angela turned back around and ran, pistol already in hand as she burst through the door. 3 incapacitating shots to the guards, just like Ana showed her all those years ago and the room was clear before she even had to reload. “Amelie…” Widowmaker stood in the middle of the room, wires still connected to her visor. The monitors showed her vitals were stable, much to Angela’s relief. “Sombra...”

_ >>>60%, mija. _

Widowmaker’s eyes opened, gold gaze piercing through her. “You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t have come for her.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Angela replied, lowering her pistol. “Amelie, please.”

“The name is Widowmaker,” Widowmaker called out, the wires releasing as she lunging towards her. Angela dodged, arms coming up to block the incoming punch.

_ >>>75%... You gotta stall! _

_I’m trying_ Angela thought, dodging another kick from Widowmaker, the self defense lessons Fareeha had been training her on working. “Amelie…”

Another growl from the woman at the mention of the name and Angela feels like the work she had done over the last 9 months had gone to waste. The thought left her open and Widowmaker saw it, kicking her square in the chest. “Pathetic.”

Angela coughed, picking herself up as she saw Widowmaker pick up her pistol. Angela tensed, gulping as Widowmaker reloaded the pistol, pointing it directly at her. “You tried. And Failed.”

>>> 81%

Angela laughed bitterly. “I tried…yeah…God did I ever try this time.” Angela looked up, trying to push herself up only to be kicked down again. “The unflappable Dr. Ziegler they called me,” Angela said Widowmaker circled her. “Never a weakness…if only they knew…”

“Trauma kind of does that you know? Makes you close up…Stop feeling eventually. I lost my parents at 6, or was it 7? I don’t remember anymore,” Angela said, eyeing the clock at her wrist. She needed just a little bit more time. “So I started building my walls, never allowing people in, always keeping everyone an arms length away to prevent myself from being hurt again. But you…”

Widowmaker stopped, tilting her head at her. Good. It was working. “I saw how easily it was to fall in love. To fall out of it. I steeled myself, made myself promise not to fall like that. That being alone was better. Safer. Less painful. You…” Angela’s voice hitched, Widowmaker still not moving from her spot. “You slipped in, so easily. I was caught off guard. You disarmed me with your smile, your voice, your compassion. You made me feel like I was someone beyond the honours thrown at me by strangers. You made me feel whole.”

>>> 95%

“You made me feel like I could love again...” Angela admitted, “When you told me to leave, I did. Not by choice but I did. I left my heart in your room that night. Promised myself never, ever again. I threw myself at work, never giving myself or anyone an opportunity to really get close. Seeing you years after, with him, with a ring on your finger…It hurt, but I was happy for you. I was numb seeing you that first time. Then I lost you, found you only to lose you to this…”

“This isn’t you, Amelie,” Angela pleaded. “This isn’t who you’re meant to be. I know you’re stronger than this. I know you can fight it. I’ve seen you fight it.”

“Amélie is dead,” Widowmaker said, voice coming out like how she was before their treatments.

“Then I am too,” Angela replied, blue eyes staring up at Widowmaker’s gold ones. “You’re the only one I will ever love, Amelie. The only one I could ever love. Do it then…”

Widowmaker pointed the pistol back at her, the assassin hesitating as Angela continued to hold her gaze. _Done._ Angela heard through the comms. On cue, Widowmaker screamed, the headpiece smoking as she tore it off herself. Angela dove to catch her falling, ripping the last of the technology off Amélie’s head. “I got you…I got you…”

“Angela…”

“Mercy!” Lena called out, guns out pointed directly at Widowmaker and herself. She looked around the room, noticing the guards still out. Lena looked at her, eyes full of understanding as she nodded her acknowledgement. “Room secure. Target recovered. Need Extraction.”

_ >>> Roger that. _

Angela smiled, wiping the tears off her face, holding Amélie closer. “I got you.”

\----------------------

“She’s stable,” Kamilah said, Angela breathing out a sigh of relief. “Whatever they pumped her with, it’s gonna be a while to recover from. Those clamps did a number on her body so she’s going to need a lot of rest.”

“Understood,” Angela acknowledged, looking into the room at the sleeping woman.

“You’re going to go down in history as the one who took down Talon, you know this right,” Kamilah advised her. “Years, Gerard tried to. Ana, Jack...none of them were able to take down Talon but you...You did it just to get to her.”

“If that was Ana or Fareeha in there, would you have done the same?” Angela questioned, Kamilah looking at her patient, giving her a nod. “It was worth it. I have her back.”

“You have the Reaper in a chamber, Widowmaker in a hospital bed and Sombra actually working for Overwatch now, I’d say that’s impressive for a medic,” Kamilah said, stifling a yawn behind her hand “Jack is still pissed but he’ll come around.”

“If you don’t need me anymore, I have a date with a beer and my bed,” Kamilah added, walking away from her. “You can go in. The doctors know you’re her family. They won't bother you. I’ll get Fareeha and Satya to bring you some fresh clothes in the morning.”

“Thank you,” Angela said, Kamilah just raising her hand before she disappeared into the elevator. Angela sighed, opening the door as quietly as she could. Amélie was there, safe. The surgery to remove the clamps took 13 hours, Angela watching from the observation room the entire time. She touched Amélie’s brow lightly, wondering what will happen to her skin and hair now that her heart will beat the same way again.

She knew it was a long, long road to recovery. But Angela knew something about waiting.

“Hey,” Amélie greeted weakly, giving her a small smile.

“Hey,” Angela said, giving her a kiss on the top of her brow. “Go back to sleep. I’ll be right here.”

“Stay with me?”

Angela leaned down, placing a kiss on Amélie’s lips, savouring the fact that Amélie was there, alive and on her way to recovering. Angela pulled away to see the softness in Amélie’s eyes, something she had longed for and was now a reality again.

“Always.”  



End file.
